In
Greek mythology, King
Laius, or
Laios of
Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban
founding myth. Son of
Labdacus, he was raised by the regent
Lycus after the death of his father.
Abduction of Chrysippus
While Laius was still young,
Amphion and Zethus usurped the throne of Thebes. Some Thebans, wishing to see the line of
Cadmus continue, smuggled Laius out of the city before their attack, in which they killed Lycus and took the throne. Laius was welcomed by
Pelops, king of
Pisa in the
Peloponnesus. Laius abducted and raped the king's son,
Chrysippus, and carried him off to Thebes while teaching him how to drive a chariot, or as
Hyginus records it, during the
Nemean games. This abduction was the subject of one of the lost tragedies of
Euripides. With both Amphion and Zethus having died in his absence, Laius became king of Thebes upon his return.
Later misfortunes
After the rape of Chrysippus, Laius married
Jocasta or
Epicasta, the daughter of
Menoeceus, a descendant of the
Spartoi. Laius received an
oracle from
Delphi which told him that he must not have a child with his wife, or the child would kill him and marry her. One night, however, Laius was drunk and fathered
Oedipus with her. On Laius's orders the baby, Oedipus, was exposed on
Mount Cithaeron with his feet bound (or perhaps staked to the ground), but he was taken by a shepherd, who did not have the resources to look after him, so he was given to King
Polybus and Queen
Merope (or
Periboea) of
Corinth who raised him to adulthood.
When Oedipus desired to know more about his parentage, he consulted the Delphic Oracle, only to be told that he must not go to his home or he would kill his father and marry his mother. Thinking that he was from Corinth, he set out toward Thebes to avoid this fate. Oedipus refused to defer to the king, although Laius's attendants ordered him to. Being angered, Laius either rolled a chariot wheel over his foot or hit him with his whip, and Oedipus killed Laius and all but one of his attendants, who claims it was a gang of men. Laius was buried where he died by Damasistratus, the king of Plataea.
Many of Laius's descendants met with ill fortune, but whether this was because he violated the laws of hospitality and marriage by carrying off his host's son and raping him, or because he ignored the oracle's warning not to have children, or some combination of these, is not clear. Another theory is that the entire line of Cadmus was cursed, either by Ares, when Cadmus killed his serpent, or else by Hephaestus, who resented the fact that Cadmus married Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, Hephaestus's straying wife. Certainly many of Cadmus's descendants had tragic ends.
Spoken-word myths - audio files
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Bibliography of reconstruction: Pindar,
Olympian Ode, I (476 BCE);
Apollodorus Library and Epitome 3.5.5 (140 BCE);
Hyginus,
Fables, 85. Chrysippus; 243. Women who Committed Suicide (1st c. CE);
Pausanias,
Description of Greece, 9.5.5-10, 6.20.7 (c. 160 - 176 CE);
Athenaeus,
The Deipnosophists, Book XIII, 602 (c. 200 CE);
Clement of Alexandria,
Exhortation to the Greeks, ii, 34, 3 - 5 (150 - 215 CE)
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References
Modern sources
Category:Greek mythology
Category:Theban kings
Category:Mythological kings
